OK, so two days ago Dave Cote takes me by the hand, totally figuratively speaking, and helps me navigate the start of my own Facebook whatever... page? profile? brand? [More on this brand thing in a sec.]
An hour into it and it occurs to me that my standard reaction of vague disinterest in Facebook was based on the fact that I didn't know what I was talking about; had not ever really investigated the technology. I was just like all the people I so often criticize for having disdain for blogs when they have no idea what they are talking about.
Now I wish to bring to your attention this rather awesome analysis of the potential of Facebook by Brian Solis. Mr. Solis is principal at FutureWorks PR, an award-winning PR and Social Media agency founded in 1999. I happen to think he is absolutely right:
...Facebook is much more than a social network. Its infrastructure facilitates profile and presence aggregation, channeling all online activity through one main hub. Simply said, it becomes a repository for every social media product, which ultimately transitions from a static profile into a dynamic destination for your personal and professional brand.
If you can agree to stipulate for the moment that Mr. Solis' analysis is right, the implications for this technology are immense. But for starters, think about the fact that in the real world there are great brands and not-so-great brands. People, like products, will suffer... are suffering... the same outcome.
Yesterday, just for an example, Dave found a Facebook profile for a young person in PR. In about a Natick minute scanning the profile he learned from the volunteered information that this person was a just married recent college grad party hearty twenty-something who quite frankly wasn't really ready to give 100% to the career thing. Rather unfortunately, perhaps, this person volunteered the name of the agency that's not getting that 100% commitment.
At the risk of stating the profoundly obvious, a personal branding opportunity is not a guarantee of a great personal branding outcome. We may delight in the thought of finally being able to showcase who we are, but who we are may not be so delightful after all. Or maybe it is. Brand quality I suppose is in the eye of the beholder? Obviously in the example here, this person was more interested in the creation of a "good time" brand than a "PR Genius" brand and that's fine if that was the intent. I suspect in more cases than not, unanticipated personal brand outcomes will occur unintentionally.
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